


Oh, I Flew Through The Air With The Greatest Unease

by 1JettaPug



Category: DCU, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Broken Families, Bullying, Childhood Trauma, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Foster Care, Loneliness, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-20
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 04:07:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8086558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1JettaPug/pseuds/1JettaPug
Summary: "Son, I don't think you quite get it. Your father is a very dangerous person.""Exactly how dangerous?""Extremely,"Axel smiled, "Good. I wanna see him."





	1. Chapter 1

The living room was covered with toys and blankets, and whatever else little Axel Jesse could find to entertain himself with. When he’d finally gotten bored, his mother scooped him up in her arms and sat down on the couch to watch some cartoons. Axel didn’t want to watch cartoons, however; he wanted his daddy.

The little six year old’s head looked at the bizarre cuckoo clock on the wall above the TV. He frowned. The big hand was past the six, and his daddy always came home before then.

“Mommy,” he pulled at her pink blouse. “Where’s daddy?”

She smiled softly and ruffled his unruly yellow hair. “He’ll be home at any time, baby. Don’t you worry.”

“But I wanna see him nooooww!” Axel pouted.

“Axel, he’ll be here in a-” She froze in mid-sentence. She picked up on the sound of a car screeching to a halt outside their apartment. “Sweetheart, you stay right here. Okay?” His mother had already laid him on the couch beside her. She got up from the couch in a hurry and ran to the window.

Axel didn’t know it, but his father was pulling something out of the trunk. He moved quickly, putting items from the trunk into his pockets. He kept looking over his shoulder as if he knew something was coming.

 _“Daddy?”_ Axel felt such a heavy tension in the air. He suddenly wanted his father in the house, right now!

Zoey Clark stared out the window, watching the corner of the street to see if any car turned down their way. _Why are you just standing there? Come inside, please, please, please._

Axel’s father ran to the front door, slamming it shut the second he got in the apartment. He burst into the living room and Zoey ran into his arms.

“Trickster!”

“Not now, Prank!” he shouted. “There isn’t much time!”

“Your eye!” she gasped.

“Not important right now, Zoey!”

“What the hell is going on?!” Her voice tight and high-pitched.

The Trickster ignored her, taking out the items he had stuffed in his pockets. He went over to the corner and picked up a loose floorboard, dumping the items in a safe hideaway.

Axel’s face scrunched up in confusion. What was going on? Why did mommy look like she was about to cry? Why did daddy have bruises covering his face? He watched as his daddy stood up and grabbed his mommy’s hand.

“James… Please, you’re scaring me,” she muttered. “What happened?”

He gently brushed her multicolored hair to the side of her face. _“I’m sorry,”_ he spoke, softly.

Little Axel watched on in a daze. He really didn’t understand what was going on, didn’t understand it at all. He watched as he daddy pulled a remote from his pocket and pressed a big red button on it. The window exploded as a hood ornament came through like a missile and smashed right into the center of their living room. 

His mommy screamed, scrambling over to Axel and holding him in her arms to keep him safe. The Trickster ran across the room towards them, backing his family up against the wall opposite the window. He placed his arm across Zoey and his son, before putting his left hand in his jacket and taking out a rubber chicken.

Axel knew to stay away from his daddy’s toys, and he knew never to mess with the rubber chickens. Sometimes they had stuff in them that went right through the floor, but this one was different than those other ones. This one had the end of a gun sticking out from its mouth. He knew it was a gun cause all the funny cartoons he liked to watch.

His mommy squeezed him so tightly that Axel thought his eyes were going to pop out. “ _James!_ ”

Sirens could be heard approaching now, and Axel watched as his parents’ faces became paler. “Mommy? Daddy?” he whispered. He was scared now, practically shaking in his mother’s grip.

Suddenly, the front of their building was full of light and noise as police cars, S.W.A.T. vans and other cars came driving up the street. Their sirens blared loudly and light spun on their roofs. They screeched to a halt, and Axel could hear doors opening and slamming shut even from inside.

Axel looked up at his father, finding the look on his face scared him more than everything else that had happened so far. Was… Was his daddy scared? No, he shook his head. His daddy wasn’t scared of anything… _Right?_

His father wrapped his arms around him and his mother, hugging them tightly. “I’m so sorry,” His words barely came out as a whisper. “And I love you both so much.”

The Trickster stepped away from his family and walked towards the front door. “I have to go away for a while...” he said, his voice cracking. “Axel, you’re the man of the house while I’m gone. Watch out for your mother. Alright?”

Zoey set Axel down on the floor and ran forward, grabbing his arm and spinning him around. “ _James!_ Where are you going?” She cried, loudly. “You can’t go!”

“ _Zoey_ …” he paused for a moment. “Don’t lose our boy. _Please_ , don’t lose him.” He told her, softly. He gently pushed her back and walked out the front door.

Axel dashed over to his mommy and grabbed her pant leg. She picked him up again and held him close, her sobs dampening his overalls. The way he was being held, Axel had a clear view of the street outside. A bunch of men wearing black body armor and carrying big guns stood on the sidewalk, their weapons pointed right at his daddy.

“James Jesse, put your hands where we can see them!” Someone shouted. “Do it now, or we open fire!”

The Trickster took a few steps and stopped three feet from them. He glanced over his shoulder at the broken window, and he smiled at his son. He turned back around, and the second he went to hold his gun up to fire- _BAM!!!_ A bullet flew right through his shoulder, knocking him back onto the ground.

Axel’s world went silent as men dressed in black barged into the house after shooting his daddy. Axel opened his mouth and screamed and screamed and screamed as they tore him away from his mommy. Everything after that was nothing but a big blur.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ten Years Later…_

Axel Walker tasted blood and dirt and cursed into the wet mud of the football field. Burst of laughter were heard ringing out behind his head as he was shoved further into the soggy ground.

“Get offa me!” he spat. Someone gripped his right arm and pushed it up his back, sending a sharp jolt of pain through his shoulder.

“Break his arm, Tyler!” Someone shouted.

“Yeah, break it!”

“Snap it off!”

“Do it, Ty!”

“Heh, I just might,” Tyler Johnson chuckled. He leaned down next to Axel’s ear and said, “It’d be so easy, too. Maybe I’d break off your fingers if I had spare time.”

“Piss off!” Axel winced as Tyler gripped his hair and shoved his face back into the mud. Axel flailed, attempting to push himself up to escape. His head ached and his body was begging for oxygen! He couldn’t move and couldn’t breathe thanks to the huge football player sitting on his back.

“What are you kids doing out here?”

Axel faintly recognized the voice of the vice principal, Mr. Foxx. The skinny, balding man came walking out onto the field, careful not to ruin his expensive shoes by stepping in the mud.

“Get off that boy, Tyler.” He ordered. “The big game is Friday, and we don’t want him snapping his head back and breaking your nose.” The huge weight on Axel’s back vanished, and he lifted his head out of the mud, gasping for air.

“Alright, Mr. Foxx.” Tyler said. “It was just a little game.”

Axel glared at him. This wasn’t some kind of damn game. He nearly drowned him in mud! He saw the vice principal and Tyler staring him down, the warnings clear on their faces. What had he done? _“I exist,”_ he thought. That was the only reason he could think of since he truly had done nothing but walk by and breathe the same air of his bullies.

The vice principal pat the football player on the back. “Onto class with you, boy.” He turned his attention to Axel. “WALKER!!” he shouted, loudly. “GET YOUR ASS TO CLASS BEFORE I HAUL YOU OFF TO DETENTION!!”

Axel rolled over onto his back and looked around to see that a crowd had formed in the stands of the football field. They all watched him, excitement and disgust filling their faces when they looked down at him. No one even so much as held a hand out for him. They were all laughing at him, like this was some silly, little prank.

He stood up without slipping in the mud and made no attempt to even wipe off his mud-splattered clothes. He made his way through the crowd of students, never looking up at the people jeering and taunting him.

**XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX**

When the bell rang for the end of the day, Axel was long gone, having run out of the school half an hour early. He slipped past the buses waiting in the parking lot and into an alleyway across the street. He made his way past old apartment buildings and out of sight of the school.

Over the course of the last ten years, Axel Walker had moved about over twenty times from home to home. No one wanted him, and no one could deal with him. Some of his foster parents even told him that that was the reason his parents gave him up.

He would never believe that shit. He remembered his mother holding him, singing to him and rocking him back and forth. She used to read him books all the time and help him build forts from pillows and blankets. Axel sighed. He wished someone could tell him her name… where she was, or if she was even alive at all! No one told him anything!

Truly, he was lucky that one of his foster parents got drunk enough one night to tell him that his mother actually existed. No one even mentioned if they knew if his father was alive or dead! And Axel knew very well that his father was present in his life when he was little. He had memories of his father watching cartoons with him and making funny faces to try to get him to eat his carrots. Axel always liked remembering when he handed him a finger-painting of three stick figures. His father scooped him up in the air, showering his son in praise over what an excellent job he did.

Axel felt his heart ache as the memories fluttered about in his mind. He wished he could remember what exactly happened to his family that they were broken up. Every day, his parents used to tell him that they loved him. When someone tells their child that, they don’t just abandon a child with no good reason.

He sixteen years old, miserable and all alone in the world. All he wanted to know was what happened to his family… Was that so wrong?

Shaking his head, Axel walked quickly through the alleyways and along the busy streets. He passed by a group of guys, who glared at him as he walked past them. He walked a bit faster, hoping today was not the day that he would get mugged.

Axel shut the door to the shitty apartment that his foster parents rented. He treaded lightly, hoping to just escape to his room upstairs and change out of his muddy clothes. He almost reached the steps when Mrs. Bigsby called out his name from the kitchen.

“Fuck,” he hissed, quietly.

“Axel! Come here!”

“What!?” he shouted.

“Come here!”

He groaned and stomped over to the kitchen. His foster mom was washing the dishes, looking over her shoulder at him. “The school called me,”

“What else is new?” he muttered under his breath.

“They told me that you were picking on some poor boy,” she told him. “Throwing him down in the mud!”

“They’re wrong.”

The short woman glared at him. “How could you pick on some defenseless boy?”

“He’s a seven foot tall football player, and he almost snapped my arm in two.” Axel said.

“I’m worried about you. You’re going to end up in jail at this rate.”

 _Wow, way to encourage me to do better…_ Axel shook his head. “Good. Maybe I belong there!”

“Your words, not mine.” Was all she had to say before turning back to her dishes.

Axel’s eyes widened, and he flinched at her words. He wanted nothing more than to run right out the door of this shitty apartment. Instead, he turned and walked upstairs to his room, slamming the door shut. He threw his backpack on the floor and stared blankly at nothing. His life was shit, and he didn’t have anyone in the world looking out for him.

Tears spilled from the corner of his eyes, and he lowered his head as they ran down his cheeks and fell silently to the floor. He went over and sat on his bed, feeling more helpless and alone than before.


End file.
